This invention relates to the provision of C or J cuts in the bottom portion of the hinges of the doors of a heel retaining assembly for use with petaloid PET bottles to facilitate the tightening of the locked carrier whether or not a toe on the petaloid bottle is in alignment with the heel aperture formed by the doors or not.
Prior Art
When fabricating a carrier from a paperboard blank, opposite ends of the blank are conventionally attached to each other by glue or by mechanical locks to form the bottom panel of the carrier. In the case of a wrap around carrier, flaps located on the ends of the blank typically are overlapped and engaged with one another by mechanical locks formed in the flaps to form the bottom panel of the carrier. Since the bottom panel must maintain its integrity throughout the use of the carrier, it is essential that the locking system be capable of supporting the weight of the packaged articles, and remain engaged during shipping and handling of the constructed carrier.
One approach to provide a stable mechanical lock assembly utilizes both primary and secondary locks. An example of such locking system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,203 to Sutherland.
Bottles constructed out of PET that have petaloid bases are difficult to package in a wrap around carrier that produces a tight package. These petaloid bottles have from four to six toes so the wrap usually has a pair of heel doors to form a heel retaining assembly which allows one of the toes to project through the aperture formed by opening the heel doors. This system works fine if the toe is centered in the aperture formed by opening the heel doors. It is difficult to align the petaloid bottles so that a toe is centered in this aperture. If the toe is not centered it may tear open the heel retaining assembly resulting in a loose wrap around carrier.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wrap around carrier with a locking system that can be tightened to produce a tight wrap regardless if a toe of the petaloid bottle being contained is in alignment with the aperture in the heel retaining assembly or not.
The object of this invention is achieved by providing a heel retaining assembly for each petaloid bottle being contained that has two heel doors that have a door hinge for each door that either have a C or upside down J type cut near the bottom of the assembly. If a toe of the petaloid bottle is properly aligned with the aperture formed by opening the doors of the heel retaining assembly the C or upside down J cut does not tear open. However, if a toe of the petaloid bottle is not properly aligned with the aperture of the heel retaining assembly the C or upside down J cut may tear in the direction of the aperture to allow the toe to project into the side of the assembly where it is being torn to a sufficient extent to permit the carrier to be tightened. The C cut is formed at the bottom of each door hinge with the open part of the C projecting toward the aperture formed by the heel doors. A small tear slit may be necessary between the top of the C and the aperture to facilitate the controlled tearing. This slit does not connect with either the top of the C cut or the heel aperture. The upside down J cut is formed at the bottom of the hinge for each heel door with the top of the J being near the bottom of the hinge and the bottom of the J facing the aperture. With the upset down J cut it may be necessary to have slits near the center of each hinge door to facilitate the controlled tearing of the upside down J cut that does not extend to either the heel aperture or hinge.